Sunday Morning Post (V.1, #20) - The Fake Journalist

Remember that time on June 6, 1944 when American journalist Edward R. Murrow reported from Omaha Beach when allied forces stormed the French coast, zig-zagging and side-stepping withering Nazi machine gun and sniper fire from the cliffs?  Surely you recall when as American soldiers were falling into pools of their own blood around him Murrow shrugged and reported, “Nothing to see here.”

If you don’t remember this incident, then let me assure you I just made it up. It is total fiction to drive home a point about a particular brand of journalism, much ridiculed and maligned, and now no longer laughable.

This past week the American President was in France to mark the 75th anniversary of the D-Day Invasion at Normandy.   He was there with other world leaders – past allies (French and British) and past enemies (Germany and Italy) — to honor the thousands who died that day to preserve world freedom.  It turned out to be a great celebration regardless of the President’s various faux pas which happen so often anymore that news organizations no longer take note.

Just prior to the ceremony, the President sat down for a live televised interview with Fox News personality Laura Ingraham.  Within his usual narcissistic ramblings, the President bragged that his interview was holding up the start of the ceremony.  The interview concluded, and later Ingraham commented to her viewers about the “fake news” stories you may hear stating the D-Day ceremony was delayed because he was speaking to an American television network.  She commented that the interview did not delay the start of the ceremony, even though the other world leaders (save Macron who, God bless him, managed to upstage our leader) were left cooling their heels for a reported 15 minutes.

WTF????

Woman, the President bragged to you, to your face, and to your television audience that the ceremony could not start until his interview ended, and you come back later to say it didn’t happen???   What kind of journalist would witness an event that is noteworthy to report to the public at large, have it also witnessed by the same audience to whom they are reporting, and then state it didn’t happen?

Answer:  a non-journalist with no integrity whatsoever.

Recap:  Edward R. Murrow, a great journalist.   Laura Ingraham, not a journalist.

(Thank you for reading this entry which did happen.)